The Daily Snark 4/29

Isaiah Berlin once used the analogy of the Hedgehog and the Fox to describe how people think. Dana Milbank attempted to make the case that Obama is a Fox who has thought himself into indecision. Let me offer a different possibility: Obama is a Lemming (I am basing this on my extensive research via Wikipedia). Group thinker without a real source of thought, the whole mass of Obama, his administration, and his supporters bounce from idea to idea without much logic and hope whatever they do will stick.

Think about this: one of the psychologists quoted by Milbank calls Obama "a brilliant social and political analyst." What, exactly, has the President done to deserve being called brilliant? He won the 2008 election, sure, but any Democrat with a pulse could have achieved that.

Milbank apparently went to the same school Detective Greenly attended.

The Daily Snark 4/28

Look, I don't buy into much of what Democrats say, mostly because I think they lack any real principles other than "punish anyone who does better than you" and "stand up for dictators at every chance."

Jimmy Carter's recent trip to North Korea does not dispel that in my mind. Once upon a time, people thought this idiot should be President. I have an odd feeling 30 years from now many will be saying the same of our current idiot President.

The Daily Snark 4/27

If we are very, very lucky, Obama just knocked Trump out of the 2012 contest. Kind of like Vader killing Obi Wan, if Obi Wan was some incompetent jackass who was better off dead.

Hoping very hard that Trump does not have force powers or become a ghost. It would be nice if he would just go away. I've barely even mentioned the birth certificate issue (on the rare occasions I have, I did so to say it was stupid), so I am glad to see it come to an end. The only real mystery is why the most transparent administration in history waited over two years to put this issue to rest.

The Daily Snark 4/26

I could not care less about the royal wedding in the United Kingdom. Maybe back in the day when marriages of this level were conducted for political purposes, but not now. Some random schmuck who was born high in line for the British throne is getting married to some random chick from the burbs. 2 billion (yes, b as in boy) are expected to watch this? Further proof that 2 billion people could be making better use of their time. I tend to think of that monarchy as a relic. Burke may dislike this thought; I couldn't say for sure, which means this is a good time to go reread Burke. Which is what I will do, rather than watch a dull wedding. Anyway, the British monarchy is certainly not as vital as the French monarchy was back in the 1790's. Maybe it is an issue of pride, but I hear that really isn't the case anymore, either. Seems like Britain is doing its very best to destroy any sense of national identity. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I leave for another day.

The Daily Snark 4/25

Remember when Iraq War opponents said we need to keep our eye on the ball in Afghanistan? Swing and a miss, I suppose.

Here's what I had to say about that argument back in September. Still seems pretty valid to me.

The Daily Snark 4/23

This is taking Earth Day a little too far, in my ever so humble opinion.

And the President got mad at the Pentagon for not creating an impossible military plan. How dare the military impose "reality" on the President's political ambitions! When the President orders the generals to deploy the Hellfire missile crapping flying unicorns, the generals need to do it, no questions asked. The money quote:

The White House thought the Pentagon was disrespecting the president by refusing to propose a politically acceptable action plan, while the Pentagon became furious that White House officials didn't "seem to understand what military force can and cannot do,'' the official said.

Too bad nobody pointed out Obama's lack of military experience and knowledge during the 2008 election.

The Daily Snark 4/22

I'm pretty certain you should be required to know the words to Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" before you become an American citizen.
OR, I'm freaked by the fact that my students do not know who Simon and Garfunkel are and that kind of makes me feel old. But probably the former. Yeah, definitely the former.

The Daily Snark 4/21

I'm pretty sure I haven't said anything, anywhere, about the birther controversy. The plurality of Republicans apparently think he was born outside of the United States. Really, I don't think it is a salient issue for most people and not one Republicans should bother with. On the odd chance that definitive proof came out that Obama's term in office violates Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution's natural born citizenry clause, God help us. Everything Obama signed over the last two years would be null and void, which is rather difficult to do for dead soldiers in Afghanistan or money spent on bombs already dropped in Libya. Politics has no mulligans.

It may be time to remove that clause anyway. I don't know where he was born and frankly I don't think it matters much except for the fact that it is a part of the Constitution and we can't just pick and choose parts of the Constitution to follow as a nation without actually repealing them.

Hmm, this wasn't really snarky. I'll work on that for tomorrow.

The Daily Snark 4/20

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration asked S&P not to give a "negative" outlook report on federal debt. Kind of sucks when other people won't go along with your rosy predictions, huh?

What frustrates me is that people will not do a thing about it until the crisis hits hard, at which point it will be too late to do anything about it. Not that they would do much but complain about it anyway, usually with faulty economics and politics (fields that they never studied in the first place). I would like to say it isn't a systemic problem in democracies, but the overwhelming evidence seems to be otherwise.

Oh well, pass the dutchie on the right hand side.

The Daily Snark 4/19

Oh my, this is a target rich environment for snark.